ActivTrades vs City Credit Capital

If you're choosing between ActivTrades and City Credit Capital, we've compared hundreds of data points side-by-side to make finding the right broker for you easier.
We've also displayed one of our most popular brokers, XTB, as another alternative to consider.

All information collected from www.xtb.com.
Last updated on 01/06/2020.

Company

ActivTrades was found in 2001 as a small brokerage house in Switzerland, it has since grown to be a global award-winning broker for both retail and institutional traders. ActivTrades has seen rapid growth through with their focus on client satisfaction by providing the best trading technology including the latest MetaTrader 5, innovative trading tools like Autochartist and VPS hosting , outstanding customer service and competitive pricing with pips starting as low as 0.8 for EURUSD.

Since 2005, ActivTrades has made the financial capital of the world - London its headquarters and is regulated by the Financial Conduct of Authority in the UK. ActivTrades offer a wide range of popular products for traders including spread betting, CFDs and Forex trading. ActivTrades also offer their clients an unrivalled loyalty program - ActivTrades Rewards.

Trader training is another top priority at ActivTrades and they offer a customised and unique personal approach to their traders and offer one on one training sessions as part of their educational programs. They also offer Balance Protection policy to guarantee you will never lose more than your deposit and as an added protection, your account will automatically be credited to zero if it goes into the negative. With all the superior training, protection policies, low spreads and the latest trading technology, ActivTrades are a superior choice for traders.

City Credit Capital is an online forex trading service provider who are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. To open an account with City Credit Capital, minimum deposits start from $500.

With City Credit Capital you can trade Forex, indices, commodities, gold, silver, and oil. If you like to trade on the go, City Credit Capital have iPhone and Android apps so you can trade from anywhere on your phone.

XTB operates with two factors in mind; to provide traders with the fastest execution speeds and to be the most transparent broker on the market, which is reflected by the services and products they provide.

XTB also have a dedicated education area - the Trading Academy - which contains material to help you become a better trader, including video tutorials, trading courses, articles and much more to improve your skills at every step of your trading journey.

If you are looking for a broker that is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and focuses on transparency, fast execution speeds and customer service, XTB is a great option.For more information about trading with XTB, we have put together an in-depth XTB review covering the pros and cons of this broker.

ActivTrades or City Credit Capital?

Access to MT4 or offers Demonstration accounts?

If you’re a trader looking for a broker that offers the popular MT4 trading platform, ActivTrades is likely a better fit. However, if you want a broker that offers demonstation accounts, City Credit Capital may be more suitable.

Which broker is more reliable?

You can determine a broker’s reliability & trustworthiness by looking at eight factors:

Who are they regulated by?

How long have they been around for?

Do they hold your money in a separate bank account?

Do they use reputable “tier-1” banks like Barclays, Goldman Sachs or HSBC?

Have they been fined or penalised in the last five years?

The popularity of their service/website

Are they publicly listed?

Where are they located?

Based on these eight factors, we consider ActivTrades and City Credit Capital to be equally reliable. We’ve broken down why below:

Who are they regulated by?

ActivTrades and City Credit Capital are both regulated by Financial Conduct Authority

As the Financial Conduct Authority are one of the most stringent regulators in the world, both ActivTrades and City Credit Capital will have very strict guidelines to follow to ensure they protect their retail trader clients.

XTB are also regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

How long have they been around for?

If a broker has been around for a long period of time, they’re likely to be more reliable (in comparison, most scam brokers only exist for several years before they disappear).

This also suggests that a broker has good risk management processes that have prevented them being caught out by major financial events,
as was the case with Alpari UK going bust when they were there was a policy reversal of capping the Swiss Franc against the Euro.

ActivTrades has been around for 19 years, while City Credit Capital have been around for 19 years.
Our third alternative broker, XTB, have been around for 18 years.

Do they hold your money in a separate bank account?

You wouldn’t want your broker paying their staff out of the same bank account account that you’re depositing your trading funds into, would you?

Fortunately, all regulated brokers must use segregated bank accounts to hold client money. This is one of the reasons why we only feature regulated brokers here on BrokerNotes.

All three brokers above will hold your money in a separate bank account.

Do they use reputable “tier-1” banks like Barclays, Goldman Sachs or HSBC?

Most tier-1 banks like Barclays and HSBC have been around for over 100 years and manage trillions of dollars of assets, proving that they have stood the test of time.

Both ActivTrades and City Credit Capital use tier one banks, but we are not sure of which bank specifically.

Have they been fined or penalised in the last five years?

If a broker has been penalised by a regulator in the past five years, it may mean that they were caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing - which may be of concern to you as an end client.

We’re not aware of any penalties or fines imposed by regulators on ActivTrades or City Credit Capital in the past five years.

How popular is their service/website?

While not always the case, the number of traders a broker has can be a good metric for understanding how reputable a brokers is.

Are they publicly listed?

Companies that are publicly listed on a stock exchange tend to be considered more reputable as they will be required to disclose their financials, and aspects of their operations, to the public.

Both ActivTrades and City Credit Capital are privately owned companies.

Where are they located?

Most reputable brokers tend to be headquartered in a major capital city or a financial hub such as Cyprus.

ActivTrades are based in 1 Thomas More Square London E1W 1YN UK, while City Credit Capital are based in 12th Floor, 110 Bishopsgate, London, EC2N 4AY, UK .

Do they offer the features you need?

Assuming the brokers you’re choosing between are reputable, the next point to consider is whether they offer all of the features you require to trade.

This can be broken down into three categories:

Services & instruments

Platforms & account types

Trading features, risk management tools & funding methods

Services and Instruments

If you’re looking to trade currency pairs,
both ActivTrades and City Credit Capital offer forex trading. ActivTrades have a slightly larger variety of currency pairs with 47 pairs, compared to 17 offered by City Credit Capital. Also, if you’re looking to trade cryptocurrencies,
ActivTrades offers a handful of cryptocurrency CFDs to trade, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.

Both ActivTrades and City Credit Capital allow you to trade commodities like gold, silver and crude oil.

ActivTrades also offer social trading, which allows you to follow the trading activity, engage in discussion, and even copy the trades of other traders.

Platforms & Account Types

ActivTrades also offer social trading, which allows you to follow the trading activity, engage in discussion, and even copy the trades of other traders.

In addition to the platform, you’ll also want to ensure that the broker you choose offers the account type best suited to your needs.
XTB, for example, offer a mini account, standard account and VIP account.

For Muslim traders, ActivTrades offers an Islamic account, which doesn’t accrue interest or incur/receive rollover swap points, as this is prohibited in Shariah law. You can learn more & compare Islamic trading accounts head-to-head here.

Trading features, risk management tools & funding methods

If you have a certain trading style (e.g. scalping, hedging, or using EAs), you’ll want to double check that the broker you choose allows this, as not all of them do.

ActivTrades does allow scalping and hedging. While City Credit Capital also allows scalping and hedging. You can't trade with EAs (expert advisors) on ActivTrades but you can trade EAs (expert advisors) with City Credit Capital.

In terms of risk management tools,
ActivTrades does offer negative balance protection to prevent you owing your broker more than you’ve deposited, but City Credit Capital doesn't offer this.

ActivTrades also offer stop losses and limit orders to help you automate aspects of your trading strategy.

Both ActivTrades and City Credit Capital accept Neteller as a funding method.

Are they affordable for what you need?

Comparing the fee structures of different brokers can be a minefield at times. The important thing to consider is what the spreads & fees are on the specific instruments and account type that you will be using.

For trading EUR/USD, ActivTrades charges 0.50 points, while City Credit Capital charges points.
Therefore, City Credit Capital is the more affordable for this instrument. If you want to compare their spreads across more instruments, You can jump back up to our comparison of their currency pair & indice spreads above.

Another consideration is whether or not your broker charges inactivity, deposit/withdrawal fees, or commissions on trades. If you’re a frequent trader, inactivity fees are unlikely to be an issue.

The Verdict: ActivTrades or City Credit Capital?

There’s no such thing as a perfect broker, but some are going to be a better fit for you than others.

Objectively, City Credit Capital is more reliable based on our criteria above. ActivTrades has a wider range of instruments to trade. ActivTrades offer lower spreads on popular forex instruments like EUR/USD and are used by more traders.

Most brokers offer demo accounts, allowing you to test their platforms to see which is suitable for you. You can test drive their demos using the links below:

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